SCRIPTURE:Mark 2:22“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

OBSERVATION:Jesus was making the point that He was up to something new, something that they had not experienced before. He challenged them to understand that a new thing requires new perspectives, new ways of thinking, new paradigms, if you will. God is constantly doing something new in our lives. Our tendency, if we are not careful, is to try to force it into our old ways of thinking and relating. We have to be ready for God to not only transform the wine, but the bottle too.

APPLICATION/CONFESSION:I hate change and I am always hoping that what God is doing inside of me will require little or no change in the way I live my life--my pursuits and priorities. The truth is, His work almost always does, and it messes with the deepest part of who I am--even the way I look at the world. I have to be willing to let Him have my wineskins--the way I look at myself and others and the choices I make (not necessarily Godly or ungodly choices but simple priorities). His work in me can not be contained without changes in who and what I am.

PRAYER:Lord, I want Your continued renewal of new wine inside of me. I realize that it will require change in me in the way I think, react and live. Remind me of that and give me the grace to let You change me, inside and out.